Day 81 – April 6 – Saigon, Vietnam

Fred had had enough of the heat and decided to stay on the ship for the second day.  We were sailing early, i.e. 4:00pm so the shuttles were going to be just for the morning and early afternoon and only once an hour.  Luckily, Jan got up and got the first shuttle because it was so full that all of the crew had to get off and the one at 10:00am was full as well.  The shuttle took almost an hour to get into downtown Saigon where the shuttle left us off just across the street from the Rex Hotel.  Jan and Fred had been in Saigon in 2006 and it has changed.  There are still a lot of motor bikes but there are more cars as well.  The Rex has a fancy shopping area on the ground floor and has been remodeled.

Jan decided to try to big market down the street from the Rex.  She skipped it the last time.  It was a big market and very crowded.  She paid way too much for her first purchase and then discovered the outside ring of shops that were fixed-price.  Since she was still looking for the same thing she had already purchased but in a different color, she found that she should have paid $7.00 but she paid $20.00!!   Several of the fixed-price shops had some really nice shirts for Fred and blouses for Jan.  So she had lots of packages when she made her way back to the shuttle bus in time to get back to the ship for lunch.